mexico

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Home : 2002 : May : 4

mexico
By katy

We just did a unit on Mexico at the Kindergarten level. As for learning factual information, I read a book from the library (the one published most recently) a few pages per day. After reading, I asked students to recall
one piece of information they heard while I was reading. As they did, I dismissed them for snack/recess. They really recalled a lot! We also did a variety of projects:
-learned that the ancient Mayan people discovered zero and created a mathematic system based on lines and dots. We did addition and subtraction problems using their # symbols. (Mayan math)
-We learned Spanish language

words and played Simon says "Simon dice"
-We learned about artist Diego Rivera and made a mural similar to his work
-We learned about bark painting and made our own by crumpling squares cut out from grocery store bags until they were really soft, then used special wax crayons to make colorful nature pictures (we found them in books) on them
-We used large colored butcher paper squares, put wall paper paste on them, shaped them around students' heads, tied a string around their head, lifted it up and put crumpled newspaper inside to hold the shape of the head, trimmed and rolled the edges to make a sombrero. Decorate with fabric, pom pom balls,etc. We learned the Mexican Hat dance. We also made rebozos (colored cloth with fabric crayons) which are used to hold a baby or groceries, wrapped around you like a sling and serapes- painted a grocery bag, trimmed the ends to make it look like fringe.
We made maracas by putting beans in egg cups, sticking a popsicle stick in the bottom, taping, dipping newspaper in liquid starch and covering them, drying, then painting to decorate.
Good luck!